Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Malcolm Nance Interview

Donald Trump has a way of bringing diverse groups of people together, for good or for bad reasons. I have felt this quite profoundly in the way that in my own distaste and loathing for Trump, I am now willing to feel ideologically similar to those who are very much defenders of American imperialism, but against the chaos that Trump has brought to American interests and power structures. Mind you, this chaos will have no positive effect on rich and power in the US, but it is affecting the relationship between the governed and those who govern and the US and its allies. On the one hand, I am against Trump intentional or accidental efforts at destabilization, but this is something that I would desire in the context of Guam becoming independent or ceasing to be the tip of America's spear. An interview such as this, from someone who worked within the machinery of American national intelligence, would have likely never appeared on this blog in the past. We shall see how long this game of strange bedfellows lasts.

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Wednesday, Mar 15, 2017 02:00 AM CSTIntelligence expert Malcolm Nance on Trump scandal:'As close to Benedict Arnold as we're ever going to get."Interview by Chauncey DeVegaSalon
On an almost daily basis there are new revelations about the
questionable and perhaps illegal connections between President Donald
Trump’s administration (and before that his campaign) and the Russian
espionage apparatus under the control of Vladimir Putin. It is no longer
appears to be a question of whether the Russian government actively worked to undermine or affect the outcome of the 2016 presidential election, but who aided it in doing so.

Trump’s
short-lived national security adviser, Michael Flynn, was forced to
resign because he did not disclose his contacts with Russia. In
addition, Jeff Sessions, now the attorney general, met repeatedly with the Russian ambassador and known intelligence operative Sergey Kislyak. Trump campaign aides Roger Stone and Paul Manafort also had extensive contacts with the Russian government. Stone has even publicly admitted to communicating
with WikiLeaks — a group known to act as a conduit for classified
information — in an effort to smear Trump’s rival Hillary Clinton. And
Trump and his inner circle have unknown but likely extensive financial
connections to Russian banks, financiers, corporations and the Russian
government.

How much damage has been caused to the American people
by Trump’s Russian gambit? Most important, are Donald Trump and his
advisers working in support of Russian interests and against those of
the Unites States? Are they traitors? How did this all transpire?

In
an effort to answer these questions, Salon recently spoke with Malcolm
Nance, a career intelligence and counterterrorism officer for the United
States government. In his more than three decades working in that
capacity, Nance served with U.S. Special Operations forces, the
Department of Homeland Security and other agencies. He has worked in the
Middle East, North Africa, the Balkans, South Asia and sub-Saharan
Africa. A frequent guest contributor on MSNBC, Nance has authored
several books, including “The Plot to Hack America: How Putin’s Cyberspies and WikiLeaks Tried to Steal the 2016 Election.”

My conversation with Nance has been edited for length and clarity. A longer version of this conversation can be heard on my podcast, available on Salon’s Featured Audio page.

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In trying to make sense of the constant revelations about
Trump’s connections to Russia, we are often hearing the truism that “the
cover-up is worse than the crime.” But in this case, it seems that the
public is just seeing the tip of the iceberg.

You are
absolutely correct. I think that the activities that have occurred and
the thing that we’re seeing indicate a scandal on an order of magnitude
greater than anything that’s occurred in the 20th century. What’s
occurring now is as close to Benedict Arnold as I think we’re ever going
to get in American history. It had better be because the only
alternative to what we’re seeing with this information is, if it’s not
espionage, then it will be the largest financial scandal in American
history.

One would think that someone would have taken Trump’s
associates aside and told them, about the ambassador and others, “These
guys are Russian spies using diplomatic status as cover?” Did they not
understand that or did they just ignore it?

You would
think that the former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency,
Michael Flynn — who had his own coterie of spies, by the way — would
know that. But what would override that? Only one of two things would
override that. This incredible belief that you give me a boatload of
money and I get a boatload of money. Then you get these incredible,
unbelievable returns promised to you, and you bring in more people.
That’s what we’re seeing here, in this whole crew . . . and I refer to
them in my book as “the Kremlin crew” . . . in that they saw
relationships with Russia and the extractive energy industries as an ATM
that would make them madly wealthy beyond anything if they controlled
the levers of government.

The only other way to explain it is that
they ideologically bought into [the idea] that Vladimir Putin is the
greatest man on Earth and that the Russian antidemocratic system and
autocracy is their way of life. I can’t believe that. I think they
wanted to win at all costs, and at the end of “win at all costs,”
whether that meant cooperating with Russia or working with them, there
was the promise of outrageous quantities of money.

Why was the mainstream American media so far behind on the story with Trump and Russia? Incompetence? Fear? Laziness?

I
think a combination of lazy and afraid. The Trump train was just so
incredibly wild. For them, it was just a question of keeping up on a
daily basis, writing these incredible stories. But putting that aside,
the people who really, really understood the American media and really
knew what to do and how to do it were Vladimir Putin and Russian
intelligence.

In fact, Vladimir Putin was the director of Russian
intelligence and then became the president of the country from that
position. Vladimir Putin understood, from the Communist era when he was a
KGB officer that the Russian propaganda system of targeting Western
media — that in the digital world you could easily pull the Western
media around by a nose ring. He hacked the American mindset through its
own news media. I would personally say [it was] the most brilliant
intelligence operation quite possibly in the history of mankind at this
point, because he selected the president.

Could this be worse than the case of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg perhaps in terms of intelligence coups?

Granted,
that gave Russia nuclear power and the hydrogen bomb. That was a pure
old-school intelligence operation. But now, you could argue that
Vladimir Putin has control of 4,000 atomic bombs and they did it using
Americans — knowing how Americans thought, knowing how Donald Trump
thought. As part of that, you also have the successful attempt to split
the “Bernie bros” from the Democratic Party, and also the Jill Steins of
the world out there saying, “There’s no difference between Donald Trump
and Hillary Clinton.”

It was a laughable and absurd claim.

“Vote for
Donald Trump so that he can destroy the country.” That was the thing
that got me about the Stein people. They wanted this anarchy and chaos
that we are getting today. The Russians knew this. Vladimir Putin had
Jill Stein at his table for the 10th anniversary of the RT network. I
don’t care who you are, you can’t say, well, if you received the
invitation, you would’ve gone, too. On his right arm, Vladimir Putin had
the former director of defense intelligence, Michael Flynn. He had both
sides of the election coin at his elbow, and he successfully used his
agency and the American media to select the president. Russian
intelligence attacked this nation with a cyber-warfare bomb and got
members of the American public to prefer a former director of the KGB
over anyone in the Democratic Party.

Do you think it
is fair to say that Trump and his cadre are traitors and that they
should be held accountable based on those criteria?

If we
use the rhetorical definition of treason, the common vernacular
definition of treason, and it turns out that anyone at any time in this
campaign was aware of Russia’s operations, decided to use Russia’s
operations and coordinate with Russia’s operations, that right there
would be treason. That would be betraying the trust of your nation.

This
situation also reflects the way the Republican Party to this point has
pursued party over country in blockading these investigations about
Trump and Russia. Trump is their opportunity to remake the second part
of the 20th century and they’re going to support him no matter what.
Also, Trump has surrounded himself with white nationalists, white
supremacists and neo-Nazi sympathizers. His cadre is part of a larger
movement of extreme right-wing nationalism in Europe as well. Again,
that is not being covered extensively.

Vladimir Putin is
creating an axis of authoritarian regimes that he will lead. Russia’s a
small country. It’s really poor. It has nothing other than oil and
weapons sales. They have taken the United States and they now have two
pillars in which to hold up Western Christendom by authoritarianism. Now
they’re going for others. They’re going to topple Germany. They’re
going to topple France. They’re going to topple the Netherlands. They’re
going after Norway right now.

If you view Trump as a
“Manchurian candidate” in league with Russia, how does that complicate
the battle against ISIS and international terrorism?

Well,
as far as Trump and Russia is concerned, it doesn’t because they view
ISIS as the vanguard of Islam and as being a fundamentalist basis of the
religion. The worst part of it all is that this comes from Osama bin
Laden. He attacked us on 9/11 in order to induce a clash of
civilizations between the Christian West and Islam. In all of these
insane right-wingers, none of them have any military experience, and the
military people that they do have that are on board with their ideology
are the ones who we consider insane. These are the Jack D. Rippers from
“Dr. Strangelove,” who want to start a global war and would use their
authority at whatever level. This is dangerous.

This
administration has got me frightened on a strategic scale because we’re
all going to suffer from this. We have a saying in the military: “The
stupid shall be punished.” This nation voted for stupid, and we are
going to get punished because these people have no sense of decorum, no
sense of decency, no sense of living up to any of the traditions enacted
over 240 years of this great nation growing.

They are the
wrecking crew, and they don’t work for this nation. I really think their
ideology is based on an ideology they got from Putin’s philosopher,
Alexander Dugin, the man who believes that Western liberal democracy
must be destroyed and a strongman authoritarianism [must] step into its
place, and then you could reshape the world as you saw fit. That’s
Hitler and Stalin talk.

What do you think comes next? Do
you think this administration can survive this scandal? Is the
partisanship so deep they’re going to weather the storm?

No.
There is a very serious chance that this could split the country in a
very negative way. That’s what Barack Obama did not want to happen,
which is why he didn’t bring all of this out before the election: “No
Drama Obama.” He thought that the norms of the United States would be of
help, and that the American public, with the information that they had
in hand, without any thumbs on the scale, would make the right choice
for president. He was horribly wrong. Actually, he wasn’t wrong. He was
only wrong by 70,000 people and three counties.

I think this will
end in impeachment. If it does not, the American system of government
will split in two. I mean, like the Democrats will just stonewall and
say, “This is treason.” Then you’re going to get the Republicans who
will say, “We’re going to use every level of power to go after anyone
that doesn’t agree with us.” But at the street level, you won’t see the
changes. You’ll still have the right to speak out. There won’t be any
arrests like there were in Russia with Pussy Riot. But people who
support Trump will do all of that. They’ll come and attack you. They
will silence you. There will be self-appointed groups of people and
militias that will make it clear that Trump is God.

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Put Guahu / About Me

This blog is dedicated to Chamorro issues, the use and revitalization of the Chamoru language and the decolonization of Guam. This blog also aims to inform people around the world about the history, culture and language and struggles of the Chamorro people, who are the indigenous islanders of Guam, Saipan, Tinian, Luta and Pagan in the Mariana Islands. Pues Haggannaihon ha', ya taitai na'ya, ya Si Yu'us Ma'ase para i finatto-mu.

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The Revolution Will Not Be Haolified

THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE HAOLIFIEDTinige’ as Guahu - 2003 (updated 2008)

You will not be able to ignore it che’lu * This time you will not be able to blame it all on Anghet * You will not be able to change channels * And watch Fear Factor, Rev TV of Salamat Po Guam because * The Revolution will not be televised

The revolution will not be televised, nor will it be advertised * It will not be sponsored by the Good Guys at Moylan’s or the better guys at AK. * It will not be something easily explained by radio callers * Whether they be Positively Local, Definitively Settler, or Surprisingly Coconut * It will not be cornered by the Calvos and explained by Sabrina Salas * Matanane * After the story about the incoming B-52’s or 1000’s of Marines careening towards to Guam, and how we * should be economically energized and not terrorized. * Jon Anderson will have no TT anecdotes about it * and Chris Barnett won’t malafunkshun it because the revolution will not be televised

The revolution will not be televised or editorialized * It will not be something canabilized with two inches here two inches there * Dubious headlines everywhere * Lee Weber will not edit it * Joe Murphy will not put it in his pipe and smoke it * Nor dream about it, or tell others the wonders and blunders of it. * There will be no letters to the editor quoting scriptures or denying its constitutionality * And there will be no American flag inserts saying these three colors just don’t run * As the revolution will not be editorialized

The revolution will not be televised or politicized * It will not play the same old gayu games * And promise you that same old talonan things. * The revolution will not wave at you as you drive by on Marine Drive * And seduce you with its hardworking eyes. * It will not be territorial or popular, and not encourage you with maolek blue. * The revolution will not put marang salaman po after its speeches to get more Filipino votes in the next election because the revolution will not be politicized

The revolution will not be televised, not be theorized * It will not be something GCC or UOG friendly. * There will be no books at Bestseller offering to help you lose something in 90 days * Or Rachel Ray helping you cook the revolution of your way. * Ron McNinch will not survey it * and will not poll people about their revolution of choice. * There will be no WASC review report demanding accountability demanding autonomy * And no beachcombing carpetbaggers will proclaim their own terminal authority * Over the histories, the laws, the thinking of those for whom they see nothing but corrupt and corrupting inferiority * The revolution will not be colonized

The revolution will not be televised, not be supersized. * The revolution will not be something you can buy at Ross, or get at blue light cost * It is not just red rice, kelaguan uhang, or popcorn with Tobacco sauce. * It doesn’t come with Coke and it doesn’t fit on a fiesta plate. * The revolution will not make you gof sinexy, cure your jafjaf, or make fragrant your fa’fa’ * The revolution will not force you to be where America’s empire begins * Or where Japan’s golf courses and Gerry Yingling’s credit card debt ends. * You won’t need a credit card, or be charged for the tin foil to cover your balutan * As the revolution will not be economized

The revolution will not be televised, blownback or militarized * There will be no more physical ordnance buried in people’s lands * And no more patrionizing propaganda buried in people’s minds * The revolution will not get you cheaper cases of chicken or increased commissary privileges. * It will not make freedomless flags feel more comfortable in your hands * Or make uniforms fit more snugly around your mind. * The revolution will not deny racism or exploitation * And not create histories about landfalls of destiny * But instead publicize the racism and evils of American hegemony. * The revolution will not be subsidized by construction contracts or the race of Senator Inouye or Congressman Burton * It will not be laid waste to by daisy cut budgets or Medicare spending limits * Instead it will be sustained by deep memories that refuse to die * The revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be televised and will not polarize based on blood or color * It will not make your skin lighter * It will not make your skin darker * It will not test your blood the way Hitler or Uncle Sam would of done * It will not hate some and love others based on their time of naturalization * Or incept date of their compacts of free association. * But the revolution will help some find comfort, find strength, find power * In their connections to the land and to each other * Allow some to discover the sovereignty that can be found in solidarity * The revolution will take and remake this consciousness that doesn’t need to be televised * But does need to be revolutionized * The revolution will not be haolified * The revolution will not be haolified